Three Important Persons that Santiago Met in the Alchemist Novel

The Alchemist

The Alchemist is a novel by Paulo Coelho tells a story about a young teenage boy who follows his dream up till the point of travelling to Egypt to find a treasure. Santiago left his parents ideal future for him (becoming a priest) to travel the world, therefore he became a sheperd. One day he met a king who pursuaded him to pursue his dream therefore he went to Egypt looking for treasure. Through the novel Santiago meets various people that play a signigicant role in this novel and spark a change in the proximity. Three most signigican people Santiago met were the King, the Englishman and the Alchemist.

Santiago meeting the king was the most significant part of the book because without his words of persuasion, Santiago would have never pursued his dream. A significant factor in which the King supported Santiago to follow his personal legend was through the stories he told, The secret of happpiness is to see all the marvels of the world, and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon. (32) This conveyed an important message for him to learn from his surroundings but also not to forget his goal. This story was the most important lesson to Santiago because unlike the Englishman, Santiago learned things from nature itself not just from the books. Dont forget the language of the omens. (30) While Santiago was travelling through Africa, the King had taught him to read omens. Omens played a huge part in the language of the world. Therefore it was important for him to know how to spot and understand them so he could draw himself closer to his dream. Another positive way the King used his words of wisdom towards Santiago was yet another story about the emerald miner, If he were to examine just one more stone – just one more – he would find his emerald. (24) This story conveyed yet another important message. The king was warning him that things will get tough in the furture, sometimes it will feel like there is nothing to look forward to. This taught Santiago just to keep on following your dream and one day eventually you will reach it.

While Santiago was travelling through Africa he met an English man that represented what not to do. Although the Englishman provided a lot of information, Santiago needed to remember to follow the Kings directions and not just to focus on books. I have to find a man that knows that universal language. An alchemist. (70) Before Santiago met the Englishman he had never heard of alchemy and had limited information on his whole personal legend. This was a positive way in which their personal meeting was for Santiagos benefit. When the Englishman asked Santiago if he had learned anything from his books, he was a bit disappointed that his answer was, I learned that these things are all so simple that they could be written on the surgace of an emerald.(83) Instead of the English man being disappointed, he should have learned from the boy. This ties back to the story that the King had told him about the oil and the spoon. In a sense the Englishman was a clear cut example of the story of the oil and the spoon when the boy only payed attention to the oil. The Englishman should have recognised Santiago as a role model. Santiago once said, Everyone has his or her won way of learning things, (84) Although this is a true fact, it all depends on to what extent. Santiago did learn things from the Englishmans books but focused more on nature and omens. This was an important factor for him achieving his personal legend because it kept him on track. This was also important because the Englishman was only focused on what he could achieve with the philosophers stone and the Elixer of life. This proves that he was not ready to learn the ways of true alchemy. Santiago learned alot through the Englishman, torwards the end he was ready to learn alchemy because he had examined his surrounding and learned from them instead of reading only books.

Santiago meeting the alchemist was a huge impact because the Alchemist played a huge role in his personal legend. Surely it did not drive the plot in a different direction because it was towards the end of his journey and he was looking for the Alchemist. This does not change the fact that this was significant to the proximity to the novel. On page, The man was speaking the language of alchemy. But the boy knew that he was referring to Fatima. (124) Although Santiago is not an expert in the language of alchemy, it infers that he understands the language. The reason he understands alchemy is because he learned to read his omens from the King. An omen is a confusing language that is hard to identify, but once you master reading and understanding omens, everything else is easier. The alchemist told the boy that the only way through learning is, Its through action. (125) This taught Santiago that the only way to truly learn is to physically do things. Unlike the Englishman, Santiago identified true omens. Yes, the Englishman had said that Everything in life is an omen. (70) This is irrelevent because some omens in life arent even worth identifying if it is no helpful for his achieving of the personal legend. Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. (129) This took place when Santiago was trying to ignore his heart due to being scared of faliure. The Alchemist said to him that if he knew his heart well enough, he would succeed because his heart would know what dream Santiago is trying to complete.

These three events really whosed Santiago what he had to do in order to achieve his personal legend. It was not only like the Englishman who just read, Santiago learned from his surrounding due to the Kings stories. Sometimes when you are trying to achieve something it is not always easy. Even when you are hopeless there is always a way to achieve something. Maktub This book teaches us that You cant learn everything from books. You also have to learn and examine things in your surroundings in order to achieve your goals.